Legend of Tenganan

Tenganan has a certian mystery associated with it, largely due to its insular style and claim to of being a Bali Aga (original Balinese) village. Tenganan has a very large area and locals have a story to explain why.

Legend has it that in the 14th Century, King Bedauli, the ruler of Bali, lost his favourite horse and offered a reward to anyone who could find it. The horse was eventually found dead near Tenganan and local people asked to be given the land as a reward. The king sent his representative to decide the boundary of the land to be given, and told him to include all the land where he could smell the dead horse. The local village chief accompanied him couldn’t figure out how he could smell the horse wherever he went, eventually drawing wide boundaries. Turns out the village chief had a chunk of horse mear inside his clothes. The decendents of the chief now work as money changers in Kuta.

A nice story and it is true that Tenganan, even though it only has 600 residents, has an unusually large area of land. To village Tenganan simply look for the sign between Padangbai and Candi Dasa.